Former NFL, Ole Miss star adds muscle to Legacy Build in Oxford
OXFORD, Mississippi — When Todd Wade took the field with the Ole Miss Rebels or one of the four NFL teams with which he played over a nine-year pro career, it was not always easy to spot the offensive tackle when burly linemen battled did battle play after play, often winding up somewhere at the bottom of a pile of massive bodies.
On a Fuller Center job site, though, the 6-foot-8 volunteer is always easy to spot — especially when standing on a roof as he did this past week at the Millard Fuller Legacy Build in Oxford.
“I do stand out on a roof,” he said with a chuckle. “I feel like everyone’s looking at me like I’m one of those mountain goats on a cliff. But I feel pretty comfortable on a roof. I’m not scared of heights.”
Wade certainly hit the heights of football. He was a second-round draft pick of the Miami Dolphins in 2000 after a stellar career at Ole Miss, he was named first-team All-SEC and second-team All-American. In Miami, he hit the ground running, earning NFL honors paving the way for thousand-yard rushers Lamar White and Ricky Williams while also standing out in pass protection as the Dolphins were among teams with the fewest sacks allowed. He would go on to play for the Houston Texans, Washington Redskins and Jacksonville Jaguars before retiring and returning to his beloved college town of Oxford in 2009.
He has been giving back to the community ever since and particularly enjoys volunteering with the Oxford-Lafayette Fuller Center for Housing, which hosted volunteers from across the country at last week’s Legacy Build.
“Joe Skinner always has been heavily involved with The Fuller Center, and he talked to our men’s group at church about volunteering,” Wade recalled. “One day, I wasn’t doing anything and said, ‘Sure!’ I did one rehab, then another. I honestly appreciate learning how to do these things. I’m pretty average, but I’ve learned to do a little bit of everything.”
He is particularly pleased that this Legacy Build home is for homeowner partner Bria Brown and her daughter, Zion. Brown is a campus police dispatcher at the University of Mississippi, where he became famous for his blocking — and his exuberance after touchdowns when he would sprint to the end zone to high-five with fellow linemen who paved the way for the score.
He loves the school and the town, but he doesn’t consider himself an Ole Miss legend the way many passionate Rebels fans do. He simply wants to be another volunteer on the job site. However, he knows that is rarely the case and hopes that his involvement in such an effort inspires others to follow in his footsteps.
“For me, it’s really just about being able to do good for people in need of a rehabbed house or a new one, he said. “Being seen giving back is all well and good if it’s encouraging someone else to do the same thing. Maybe it can attract some younger folks from an organization, a church or a club. Everybody has some free time. How they choose to use that is up to them. But hopefully it can give somebody the motivation to come out and help. They’ll end up enjoying the process and the work involved.”
They also might see a side of their community that is sometimes overlooked.
“You learn much more about the needs of a community,” he said of his volunteerism. “For a small town, Oxford is a wealthy small town. A lot of people are unaware of certain streets and the need for housing in some areas. When people come out and do this, they might come to an area they didn’t know and see problems that they might not have been aware of.”
Unfortunately for the Oxford community, the Dolphins are calling Wade once again — well, not the NFL ones but the bottlenose variety in the waters off Vero Beach, Florida. The self-described “saltwater junkie” and his wife and three children — ages 8, 6 and 4 — are moving to the Treasure Coast this spring. He will continue to visit Oxford, and he will be looking for more opportunities to serve in the Fuller Center world. He certainly wants to continue improving his “average” construction skills, though he may never achieve excellence in the construction field the way he did on the football field.
“You have to practice no matter what you’re doing to be great at it,” Wade said. “Too many people think that if you’re just working with a team in practice, that’s enough. It’s not. All the greats from Michael Jordan to Larry Bird and all the great football players had an outstanding work ethic and understood what it takes to be great. You cannot do that just on natural skills.”
We'd love to hear your comments!